September 28, 2010

TCU To Big East? Really?

Take this with a bag of salt, but the NY Post is reporting The Big East is targeting TCU to add to the conference. I don't know if I buy it, but it's interesting. And given the fluid nature of the conferences these days, I rule zero out. As TCU AD Chris Del Conte said a few weeks ago, every rumor is in play.

As much as the geography sounds silly, it should be no more silly that TCU is in the Mountain West.The Big East has an automatic BCS bid, and would be a step up in visibility for football and men's basketball, among other sports.

I recently wrote that it is only a matter of time before TCU is an AQ conference. That could be the Big East or even the MWC, but it will happen and soon. The only draw back to the BE is that TCU won't draw many fans to that area.

There is as much "east" in Fort Worth as there is "mountain."
Good gosh, when are we going to get smart and either form the Texas Conference or go to the big 12 and play geographical schools? Playing with the big boys will get you the big boy's rewards.
While I'm at it, memo to TCU's very small and not very smart PR dept. Please please make it so all with a tv sets can see TCU football games, especially those on the road hundreds of miles away in the mountains -real mountains- of Colorado. I have AT and T and not everyone (including AT and T) carries "The Mtn." I won't change just to pick up the games because I'm very happy with ATT cable otherwise. It's TCU's PR dept that needs to change!

There is no mistake in joining an AQ conference ... especially one you can win every year. Oh, yeah, what a drag it would be going to a BCS bowl and being on prime-time national TV every year. Again, this probably isn't true, but you guys who are poo-pooing it are ridiculous. Sure, stick with The Mtn. where no one watched TCU play. Great call.

Playing games as a member of the Big East conference in a stadium named for the man who dubbed Fort Worth as being "where the West begins?" Yeah, OK, whatever. Just give us AQ status. Didn't want to join the Burnt-12 anyway.

Not only did Amon Carter dub FW as "where the west begins," but he was behind the creation of Big Bend park. Mr. Brite of the Sierra Viejo mountains endowed Brite Divinity School. TCU is all about western heritage. Don't get too excited about one more go round with Mac Engel's unnamed sources. They've never been right yet.

Of course, Fort Worth and Texas are not without Big East connections, either. Our city was named for a New Yorker, and the "twin sisters," which helped win the day at San Jacinto, were a gift from Cincinnati, where they maintain a "Lone Star pavilion" inside one of their city parks still today.

Frankly, I'd play in a conference with Eastern Europe if it meant a one-loss season wouldn't relegate us to the Las Vegas bowl.

We could move and then watch the whole apple cart get turned over again as soon as a new TV deal comes up. Conferences are in too much flux now to count on anything. This is NOT the Ivy league & wouldn't help TCU academically. Of course, it never hurts for word to get out that we're gettin' courted.

-- About $6M a year better.
-- Eastern exposure, where the people actually are.
-- Direct ties to ESPN.
-- May always be the weak-football-sister of the big six conferences, but will always be a member.
-- MWC will never join that family. With Boise coming on, that might have happened. Then Utah left, and BYU. Now, the MWC will basically become a glorified WAC.
-- MWC television pacts will never grow much larger than they currently are (which is weak, at best). In fact, they probably will drop with the loss of UU/BYU. And as bad as the MWC pact is, the WAC's is 10 times worse. They could combine the conferences and come nowhere near closing the gap.

This is hands down the best option for TCU. Hyman tried to get this done in 2002.